Two reports by leading clinicians said that there was a need to change the way emergency care and heart and stroke services were delivered, to ensure that patients get the best care in the right place. The National Clinical Directors for emergency care and for heart disease and stroke, both said that traditional accident and emergency departments were not the only option when dealing with life and death situations.
Source: Roger Boyle, Mending Hearts and Brains, Department of Health (08701 555455) | George Alberti, Emergency Access, Department of Health
Links: Boyle report | Alberti report | DH press release | PM speech | BMA press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Dec
The Scottish Executive published a strategy for the development of modern, locally sustainable community hospital services that were responsive to local community needs in a wider range of settings than already existed.
Source: Developing Community Hospitals: A Strategy for Scotland, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Strategy
Date: 2006-Dec
The healthcare inspectorate called on the National Health Service to step up efforts to improve the management of admissions to hospital. It said that NHS trusts had delivered a series of significant improvements, with fewer delays in accident and emergency departments, and reduced lengths of stay for people admitted for surgical procedures from the waiting list. But trusts could improve further - by tackling delays further into patients? hospital stays, and giving patients admitted from the waiting list more choice over admission dates.
Source: Acute Hospital Portfolio Review: Management of Admission in Acute Hospitals - Review of the national findings 2006, Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (020 7448 9200)
Links: Report | CHAI press release
Date: 2006-Oct
The government announced funding of up to ?750 million to invest in a new generation of community hospitals in England to provide patients with tests, scans, and chemotherapy closer to home.
Source: Our Health, Our Care, Our Community: Investing in the future of community hospitals and services, Department of Health (08701 555455)
Links: Report | DH press release | CDNA press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jul
The government published the first official analysis of hidden delays in the National Health Service in England. Hospitals were hitting the target for all patients to get a first outpatient appointment within 13 weeks of being referred: but many patients then had to wait months for diagnostic tests and further outpatient appointments before they were allowed to join the inpatient queue. After that, they could wait a further six months for an operation. Some waited up to two years in total.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 12 July 2006, columns 69-70WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DH statistics | Kings Fund press release | RNID press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jul
A report said that people were getting better care despite National Health Service bed numbers falling by a third in the previous 20 years. Technological advance and better community care meant that patients could spend less time in hospital.
Source: Why We Need Fewer Hospital Beds, NHS Confederation (020 7959 7272)
Links: Report | NHS Confed press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-May
The healthcare inspectorate said that hospital inpatients in England were broadly satisfied with their care, but did have concerns about cleanliness, lack of information, and staffing.
Source: Survey of Inpatients 2005, Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (020 7448 9200)
Links: Report | CHAI press release | BBC report
Date: 2006-May
A report sought to set out a sustainable future vision for general acute hospitals. It said that this would require a radical reshaping of the National Health Service, with acute hospitals working in networks with community services.
Source: Strengthening Local Services: The future of the acute hospital, National Leadership Network for Health and Social Care (nationalleadershipnetwork.org) Links: Report
Date: 2006-Mar
A survey found that the proportion of elective hospital activity that was privately funded had fallen from 14.6 per cent in 1997-98, at the outset of the Labour government, to 10.6 per cent in 2008.
Source: Laing's Healthcare Market Review 2009/10, Laing & Buisson (020 7833 9123)
Links: Link removed
Date: 2006-Jan
An article said that short-stay unplanned hospital admission rates in young children in England had increased substantially in recent years and were not accounted for by reductions in length of in-hospital stay. The majority were isolated short-stay admissions for minor illness episodes that could be better managed by primary care in the community and might be evidence of a failure of primary care services.
Source: Sonia Saxena, Alex Bottle, Ruth Gilbert and Mike Sharland, 'Increasing short-stay unplanned hospital admissions among children in England; time trends analysis 1997-2006', 15 October 2009, PLoS ONE
Links: Abstract | Imperial College press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2006-Jan
